Land of the Dead
by Brian Boru
Summary: When Tom Brody is wakes up to find himself in Tokonosu City, Japan exactly one year before the Undead Apocalypse he seems utterly screwed. Armed only with foreknowledge of what lies ahead, and oddly enough an ax, shield and spear, will he be able to save himself and those around him as he prepares to enter The Land of the Dead?
1. Chapter 1

One year, it had been a VERY long year since I'd found myself in the land of the Rising sun, with no memory of how I'd gotten here, documentation indicating that I was a Custodian at some high-end high school in a city whose name I didn't recognize.

Today was actually the anniversary of the day I'd found myself in a dingy apartment with a custodial uniform in one corner and a note attached to it. Written in Japanese script, which I found to my shock that I understood perfectly, was a short letter explaining that I was now a Janitor for some place called Fujimi high, all documentation was taken care of and I even had a bank account. It was the end of the note that made a chill crawl up my spine that day.

 _ **One Year Ago**_

"Please be sure to bring the items found in your closet one year from now to your school. You will need them."

Hesitantly I had opened the small closet and a cold, hard knot formed in my stomach when I saw sitting at the bottom of the closet three things. A ax, a spear, and a shield. Why in God's Name did I need weapons like that, I had no clue but if ROB, as I'm sure ROB had something to do with my situation, said I would need them, then I had better listen to what he had to say.

Shutting the closet I had dressed myself glanced into the mirror...which had brought me to a complete stop yet again.

"What the fu...?" I had muttered staring at a small mirror hanging in on one of the walls of my apartment.

I...looked like myself...sort of... a more apt description is if I had visited one of those caricature artists like they had back at Six Flags, only the caricaturist was replaced with a Japanese style artist and had made me into a cartoon character...though, much more detailed than any that I'd seen in my entire life. I was leaner than I'd ever been in my entire life. Lifting my shirt I noticed that the sheathing of fat I'd carried for pretty much my entire life was...gone...replaced with hard muscle. I wasn't model lean by any shape but I looked more like a miniature linebacker than the pint-sized offensive lineman I was before...

"Damn...looking good..." I'd muttered to myself. Even IF this didn't make up for the fact that I'd been ripped from my home and life...it was a start.

Pushing it out of my head I headed out of my building and glanced in the direction of my job...about a stone-throw away from my new home...convenient. Glancing under the stairwell I noticed the moped I apparently had a key for...never had one of those before...but shouldn't be too hard to learn to ride.

Locking the door behind me I'd trotted along at a sedate pace, my mind a flurry of questions. So deep I was in my thoughts I'd failed to notice something else about my new...home. In fact I failed to notice said trait until I was walking through the student parking lot when the driver side door of a little bug car happened to open and I stopped dead in my tracks...

Blonde hair was the first thing that stood out. Bright as the sun and long enough to reach a gloriously formed posterior. Then this glorious tribute to feminine beauty turned around to face me. Amber eyes that seemed to glitter with bubbly happiness. A perfectly formed face that seemed to permanently smile and light up everything around it. Oh yeah and a bosom that'd make Anna Nicole in her prime feel self-conscious.

Apparently I'd been staring for a while when a horn honked right next to me. I nearly jumped out of my skin and scrambled out of the way of teacher trying to get to their parking place. I caught a glance of dark hair and glasses before the car passed by me.

I heard a female voice giggling. I turned my head back towards the focus of my attention. Apparently the woman about my age had seen the entire affair and had been amused by my antics.

I could feel my face going red as I chuckled weakly. "Thank-you, I'll be here all week." I replied as if I'd been doing a comedy routine.

That set her laughing even harder, her shoulders actually shaking a bit...along with other things. "You're funny Sir. Oh but are you alright?" Even her voice was a wonder to hear...I was starting to wonder if I had a problem...

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just scared me out of a year of growth is all." I managed to sputter out.

"Are you sure? Because your face is all red." The blonde bombshell walked around her car and actually pulled that stunt with the hand and the forehead. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that also meant that certain somethings were rather...close, nearly pressing into my chest really. A small corner of my mind noted that we were nearly of a height, she being just a hair shorter than me at about 5'8''.

"N-no really I'm alright just had a scare is all." I had finally managed to sputter out, and backed up just slightly so as not to intrude on her personal space.

She smiled and said, "If you insist but if you don't feel alright later you can come see me, I'm studying to be a doctor and I could use the practice."

"Thank-you Miss, kind of you. Oh where are my manners, I'm Tom Brody" I managed to sputter out, "I'm the new Custodian here."

She bowed in return. "My name is Marikawa Shizuka. I'm the School Nurse here. I'm also new. It's my first day actually. I hope I'll be able to find the nurse's office."

A detailed map of the school flashed in my mind, well Fortune Favors the Bold and all that.

"I think I can help there. I kinda had to learn every nook and cranny of this place when I started here. I can take you to the nurse's office before I head down to mine." Really just a glorified broom closet my implanted memories said but I wasn't about to say that out loud.

That brilliant smile snapped right into place, "Oh thank-you!" I think my heart skipped a beat.

"Not a problem, the least I could do really. Us newbies have to stick together right?" I managed to say without getting tongue-tied.

"I guess you have a point, lead the way Brody-san."

With that I turned and headed into the building, Miss Shizuka behind me, a chipper smile on her face.

As I guided the two of us through the large school a niggling familiarity began worm its way through my mind. This all seemed really familiar. The names, and the young lady moving up to walk next to me, I felt like I knew them from somewhere.

Then it struck like a thunder-clap I knew where I was and what was going to happen in a year and why I needed those weapons when it happened.

I managed to cut off a curse before Miss Shizuka noticed the change in my demeanor. A quickly plastered smile covered the growing terror that rose us from my soul. Then a sort of resolve seemed to harden as I headed down the hallway that held the Nurse's office.

"Well here's your office Marikawa-san. "If you need anything or help finding a room I'll be on the first floor by the stairs, can't miss it."I hope you have a good day." I gave her a slightly clumsy bow.

"Thank-you Brody-san. I hope we'll meet again soon. Us newbies have to stick together right?" Marikawa echoed my own words and returned the bow, then headed into her office.

I smiled again then headed down to my office. I knew why ROB had armed me and given me a year. I needed to prepare.


	2. Chapter 2

For several weeks after beginning my new job I entered a sort of routine. I'd wake up around 7:00 clean up, drink a Coke Zero (thank GOD I found that corner shop) pack a lunch, (vegetables of some sort and usually canned tuna. Not the meal of kings but it got the job done.) Walk to the school, say good morning to Miss Shizuka, help her with anything she was bringing to the office, we'd talk for a bit, nothing major, music, books, movies and the like.

I learned she was a sap for romance novels or romantic movies, when she'd gotten to see Titanic in Highschool she admitted she'd cried at Jack's death and the ending where Rose and Jack were together again in the afterlife.

I told her about my interest in Fantasy and Sci-fi and my preference for the more historical stuff. Though the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit had been my favorites growing up. I was a bit surprised when she'd told me she'd never read them though she said she'd enjoyed the movies and had admitted to having a crush on the character Legolas.

"You and half the planet." I'd commented dryly.

"I was in middle school!" She huffed though not she wasn't really all that mad.

I chuckled and shifted the cardboard box in my arms, "So what's in this one? Your brick collection?"

That set her giggling again. "Nothing like that Brody-san. It's just some rubbing alcohol and bandages...and maybe a few microscopes."

"A 'few' microscopes? What do you need that many for?" I asked, no wonder this thing weighed a ton.

"I'm also in medical school to become a full doctor, remember? I need to get some studying in whenever I can and the hospital was kind enough to lend me the equipment while I work as a nurse her."

I nodded, "That makes sense. Though I don't think my arms will appreciate it."

That got her laughing again and I laughed with her. It was rather nice talking with a pretty woman, I'd never really done that back home, a combination of nerves and time had curtailed my socialization opportunities with the fairer sex. Meaning that I relished these moments.

Eventually though we reached the Nurse's Office and I was able to put down the arm-killing box. I shook my arms and winced at the pain in my elbows.

When I started my cleaning job I had found to my pleasure that Fujimi High had a state of the art weight room for the student athletes. Thank-you wealthy alumni and parents!

After a short conversation with the principle I got the deal that so long as I cleaned up after myself I could use the weights to my content. A deal which I had taken quite willingly. I remembered full well what was coming and I needed every chance I could get to increase my odds of surviving the hell that was coming.

I'd quickly started a weight training regimen, thanking my lucky stars I'd memorized the routines that my old man had hammered into my skull though I would freely admit that this was the first time I'd followed through the routine start to finish on a daily basis without ever cutting corners. The results were that I'd been slowly getting stronger, interestingly at a rate I was sure I hadn't achieved since high school, another trait from my transfer to this world? The downside was that some of my joints were sensitive after the punishment I'd given them.

Apparently Shizuka had seen my pain and had immediately walked over, a slight look of concern on her face. "Is everything alright Brody-san? Did you pull something?"

I shook my head, "Nothing like that. My elbows are just a bit sore, remember I mentioned that I'd started weight-lifting? Just comes with the territory to maintain these muscles." I flexed a bicep to prove my point.

That look never left her face, "But if you're hurting then it's my duty as a nurse to help. Hold on I think I might have something..." With that she turn and began searching her cabinets, eventually searching into one of the lower cabinets...rather far back. I quickly glanced out the window and took a different view than what everything my Lizard Brain was screaming at me to do instead. Finally I heard a muffled shout of "Found it!"

I turned and watched her wiggle herself out of the cabinet and produce a jar about the size of your average canning jar, a look of satisfaction on her face. A clear viscous material was visible through the glass the container and I could catch a hint of something mint like. Even from over where I was standing.

"An old family remedy, I learned how to make it from my grandmother and it does wonders for sore muscles and joints." Then she opened the jar.

A moment later and my senses were outright assaulted by a wave of mint or some sort of vaporub. I could feel my sinuses clearing themselves and then begin to burn.

"Wow! That's some strong stuff. What's in it?" I asked through a few coughs.

"Now that'd be telling family secrets Brody-san. But you can use it as much as you want whenever you want. Just come here and ask me. Go ahead and put some on your elbows. Not too much, this is quite strong."

Sniffing in an attempt to clear my nose I nodded and took a bit on two finger tips, it was extremely cool to the touch, then I began to rub the gel-like substance into my elbow. There was an odd combination of cool and burning for a moment, then incredible relief as the pain just vanished.

I audibly sighed in relief, which elicited another giggle from the veritable Angel of Mercy. "It seems like you like it Brody-san."

I shook my head, "Um, yes, thank-you, thank-you very much, this stuff works like a charm."

"Happy to help Brody-san. Now we both need to get on to our jobs. Keep the jar, I have a few more in the cabinet there." She said with a smile.

"Thank-you again Marikawa-Sensei." I said with a appreciative smile on my face.

"Oh you can call me Shizuka if you like."

I blinked a bit at that, then I grinned and bowed again. "Thank-you again, ...Shizuka. I guess you can call me Tom then."

"Good day Tom." She replied. With that I headed out of the office towards my own glorified broom closet, the jar under my arm and a smile on my face. Today seemed like a good day. I even began whistling a tune as I headed down the staircase.

My smile vanished when I almost bumped into someone coming up the stairs at the same time. That someone else turned out to be the biggest dick in this entire damn school, one Shido Koichi, a teacher as well as the Track & Field coach. He was also arrogant, and sadistic to a disturbing degree and the only reason he had a job at this school was because of the string pulling of his old man, who was some big shot in the national diet. Well the old fart sure as hell didn't have my fucking vote.

Either way the smug bastard did his best to look down his nose at me, a difficult venture when the man was a couple of inches shorter than me and at least 100 lbs lighter. It was a comparison in opposites, the lean, clean-shaved, slick-haired, bespectacled, and smartly dressed Paragon of Japanese handsomeness on one side. While on the other was a prime example of Gaijin. Big shoulders and limbs, shaggy hair that was starting to look like a mop, shaggy beard (needed a trim) and wearing the somewhat shapeless outfit of a custodian.

"Ah Brody-san, good morning." He managed to eventually say, God the bastard's voice sounded oily.

"Good morning Shido-Sensei, surprised to see you in the stairwell."

"Not that surprising I was just giving some of my students some advice on a private matter on my way to my class. Well good-day Brody-san." He then moved on past me.

As soon as he was out of sight I turned my head and spat. Scumbag had no business advising a rock let alone the young people who attended the school.

I then headed down the stairwell and found the students he'd been advising. In actuality it had been a trio of sophomores bullying a freshman. The poor kid was in a ball as one of the jackasses was rearing back for a kick.

"HEY!" I bellowed. The three wannabe-thugs snapped their heads to look in my direction. Any retorts at the Gaijin butting in died in their throats when they got a look at my green eyes seeming to almost blaze in fury.

"I suggest the three of you get to class, NOW!" The three boys scrambled up the stairs like the hounds of hell were after them. Once I was sure they were going. I turned back to the kid they'd been beating on. "Hey kid, you alright?"

The kid in question was still curled up on the ground, shaking as he fought back sobs.

"Hey kid, you okay? Those jackasses are gone, I scared them off for the moment. Here let me help you up." I said in as gentle a voice as I could.

Eventually I managed to get the kid back on his feet and one look at his face triggered recognition in my mind. Hirano Kohta, official marksman and gun-nut for the canon team about a year from now. He didn't seem much like the dead-eye crack-shot I knew him to be, but then again he didn't have much in the way of confidence when he was unarmed.

"Are you hurt? I know the nurse and I can can take you to her if you want."

"N-no I'm alright Janitor-san." The young man fought to hide any tears though the red eyes and sniffing were dead giveaways.

"You sure? If you're worried about those jerks I think between me and Marikawa-Sensei we could have the Principle throw the book at the three of them." I mused.

"N-no! I mean, no I'm alright. No need to interfere." He said, "Thank-you for helping." He brushed himself and began to head up the stairwell.

I'm still not sure why I did what I did but I sighed and called, "Kid wait a moment."

He stopped and turned back to me. "Thinking about it. Yes, I don't think that just going to the Principle will solve anything. Even if we get rid of those jerks another pack of them will pop up to replace them in a heart-beat. Bullies like that can smell weakness like a shark does blood and they'll come out of the woodwork if there's a soft target for them."

Kohta seemed to curl up on himself as he heard himself being described as a soft bully-magnet.

However I wasn't finished, "However, that doesn't mean we can't do something to resolve the problem. We just need to make you NOT a soft target. Tell me kid you part of a club?"

"No, I'm not in a club." He said weakly, a look of interest on his face, curious about being NOT a soft target.

"Excellent! Tell you what kid I've got a plan that is a sure-fire way to get those jerks off your back, heck if you listen to what I say then might even be a chick magnet by the time I'm done with you. You interested?" A smile spread across my face.

Kohta stared at me before rubbing his eyes and nodding. "Yes, of course! I'll be under your care Sensei! Oh erm..my name's Hirano Kohta."

"Calm down ki-er Kohta-san, I'm not much for standing on ceremony. Brody-san or Tom-san's fine." I said with a chuckle."

"Alright Hirano-san if you're really dedicated then meet me at the door to the dorms at about 6:30, make sure you're wearing your P.E. clothes and we'll get started. Will I see you there?"

"Yes Brody-san I'll be there!" With that the young man scrambled up the stairs just noticing the time. I chuckled then headed down to my broom closet to drop my lunch off and then head off to make my rounds.

That evening Kohta was true to his word. I started him working the same sort of program that I did, though at a much lower weight and intensity. No point in killing the kid. After the weight training we then did stair runs, after the classes were over and the clubs were done we mostly had the building to ourselves. Kohta didn't make much of a showing that first night, but honestly he had a dogged determination that allowed him to get back up after collapsing from a minute long sprint up the stair-case.

When we finished Kohta was exhausted and he stank up to high heaven but he seemed quite happy with himself. "Not bad kid, you've got a fire in ya kid, you'll need that for this stuff."

A weak smile spread across his sweaty face. "Thank's Sensei, I mean Brody-san."

After making sure he got to his dorm and got cleaned off I went back and cleaned up the equipment, locked the buildings down and headed home myself.

I had no idea what the consequences would be but I felt that I was doing something good for everyone involved.


	3. Chapter 3

And so the weeks went by as I worked in my new training regimen with Kohta with my regular schedule.

I hate to admit it, but it was a bit on the embarrassing side to watch the poor kid struggle. I'd been lifting weights since I was in middle school and had been lifting weights in the several hundred pound range for years. Watching some Kohta's age dying with only 50 lbs was like watching a three legged puppy trying to chase a ball.

However I reminded myself that when I'd started lifting weights properly I was dying trying to bench press a pair of 20 lbs dumbells. So I held my tongue and told myself that he'd improve. And amazingly he did. It took a few weeks but one evening instead of looking like a man facing his execution he instead had one of grim determination.

"Well you seem to be in a better mood today kid. Something good happen?" I asked good naturedly.

"No Brody-san, today just seemed better today. I can't really put my finger on it." He shrugged his shoulders that were looking a hair broader or maybe it was the slightly smaller gut pulling on his P.E. shirt less that was causing the effect.

I grinned, then clapped him on the back, "That's good, means the endorphins are kicking in finally I was wondering when they would." It probably helped as well that someone seemed to give a damn and was interested in his well-being. His parents, from what I recalled travelled often and while they did care were on the distant side and so weren't always aware of what was going on with their kid.

Add in the fact that he's kinda short, overweight, wore glasses and wasn't the most socially adept he was almost a perfect storm of high school drama and ostracization. Well hopefully I'd make a difference on that front.

As the two of us went through our routine I noticed he'd at least doubled his original weights, impressive, very impressive.

The next morning I was interrupted on my walk down to my office by the principal's secretary a small young woman, 5' nothing and she couldn't have weighed a 100 pounds soaking wet. Cute as well in that pixie or kitten sort of way plenty of guys seemed to lose their minds over here in Japan.

Something of a rarity as well if one were bluntly honest I wasn't sure how but it seemed women on average seemed more….healthy here that back home and that seemed to be a world-wide trait….a Playboy mag I'd found once while bagging the trash was...eye opening, to say the least.

But back to little miss secretary, yes she was cute, but to be perfectly honest that sort hadn't ever really been my type and it didn't help that the woman PLAINLY didn't like me. I wasn't sure WHAT I'd done to offend her but I had and she would make it blatantly clear in her dislike. It was astounding sometimes how someone that tiny could make a guy over half a foot taller than her feel intimidated but she was pulling it off with one of her ice-cold stares.

"Yes Yamazaki-san? How can I help you?" I asked in my most polite voice, in a likely vain attempt to appease her with manners. It failed.

She all but glared at me and said in a clipped and icy tone. "The Principal would like to meet with you Brody-san." And with that she turned around and began striding back to the office.

I stood there staring for a moment, unsure what to do, but before I could react she turned around and glared again. "Well aren't you coming?" Then she snapped back around and continued her power walking...how she did that in heels and a skirt that tight I'll never know…

Anyway I gathered my senses and trotted after her before catching up and slowing down my stride to keep apace with her, taking one stride for every two of hers. My feet flapping a bit compared to the ordered and quick stacatto her heels made.

She made no sign that she'd noticed me catching up and continued staring ahead and clacking along the hallway. The silence and my imagination began to gnaw at me as I wondered what the principal wanted with me. I'd never actually met the man though apparently I'd done my interview with the man before starting my job as part of my cover story when I arrived here and I was slightly concerned as to what he wanted with me.

In an attempt to break the ice as well as sniff out what might have been in store for me I turned my head to look at Miss Yamazaki and cleared my throat to get her attention.

"So...would you happen to know what Principal Yamada wants with me?" I asked in a slightly nervous voice.

Yamazaki never turned her head and didn't seem to have heard what I said, I was about to repeat when she suddenly responded. "I don't know. He didn't see fit to tell me and it wasn't my place to ask. You'll have to find out yourself Brody-san." She didn't elaborate beyond that and her tone brooked no further questions so I kept my mouth shut and sweated as the two of us continued on our way.

Finally we entered the principal's office area, a small waiting room with a desk that I assumed was Yamazaki's was pushed alongside one wall while some chairs were lined up against the other side. Yamazaki promptly sat down and began to type away on her desk-top computer. "He'll see you now." She said in a quick tone, never looking away from her computer screen.

Rude, I thought to myself, then bowed my head and headed towards the door, as I closed the door behind me, I noticed that in a small picture frame was a rather candid photograph of Koichi Shido. Ah so that's how it was, my dislike of the snake was well known though I'd never said so to anyone. If she was sweet on that bastard then that explained things so much.

That line of thought was chased out of my head with an older male voice broke the silence in good though slightly accented English, the first I'd heard in a while. "Ah, Mr. Brody, glad to see you, come sit down."

Turning around I got my first close look at the school principal. He was around 50 years old with short cropped hair and a salt and pepper moustache over his lips. His dark eyes were intelligent and he seemed to be a pleasant man. I'd certainly never heard anyone complain about him before.

I bowed and then sat down. "Good day Principal Yamada. Good to see you as well. What was it you wanted to see me about?"

"Ah cutting to the chase then? Good, this will make things quicker."

He shuffled some papers and my stomach began doing back-flips.

"It says here that you applied to the Custodial Job, even though you're a native English speaker. You could have gotten a job as an English teaching assistant. Why is that?"

Swallowing and praying that ROB wouldn't screw me over before the apocalypse actually happened I answered as calmly as I could. "Well to be honest it was two reasons. First I wasn't confident enough of my Japanese language skills that I wouldn't make an idiot of myself. The other reason was that I didn't feel that I had the teaching experience for that sort of job. That and I'm not the public speaker, it wouldn't look good if the students saw their teacher stuttering while trying to teach them, they're not oblivious and they'd pick up on that very quickly."

He nodded. "Yes that's what you told me when you applied for the custodial job and to be honest we didn't need an English teacher assistant or otherwise at the time. That's changed however since then." He looked over his papers and continued, "I'm sure you heard about this already but one of our foreign assistant teachers had to leave suddenly because of a death in her family.

I winced at that, yeah I'd heard about it. Young lady from Cali had been here as a teaching assistant for a few months then got the tragic news that both her parents as well as a younger sibling had died in a tragic car accident. I hadn't talked with her but from what Shizuka had told me it had all but broken the young woman and she'd listed for a few days before declaring she was leaving to go home.

"Oh yes I heard. Shame what happened to her, no one deserves losing so much so quickly." I said in a sympathetic tone.

Yamada looked down for a moment then looked back up. "Indeed but with Miss Clara heading home that leaves an opening that needs to be filled and I'd rather not go through the madness and paper work needed to get another fluent English speaker. Not if there's one already here.

I stared for a moment. "Me? But I'm not registered with JET, I'm not even a teacher!"

"I don't HAVE to get my english instructors from the Program and you'd be a teaching assistant, much looser standards and requirements for the job. It'd also be an increase in your pay and easier hours than the ones you keep already. As for your worries about your Japanese, I really don't hear any problems considering we've been speaking it since you sat down." Clever old man. Very clever.

"So Mr. Brody what are your thoughts?"

I sat there for a moment then shrugged, "Alright, though I hope you know I might not be the best man for the job." I said.

He extended his hand for a shake to my surprise and I grabbed it and gave it a firm shake. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Besides I'd hate to tell Inoue-san that the Janitor job I'd told was his was no longer available."

I froze for a moment, stunned at the old man's confidence. He only smiled at my surprise. "I'll handle the paperwork and I'll have someone give you a crash-course on what you'll need to know. Just make sure you have some presentable clothes for when you start classes."

I grinned again. "Thank-you but I have to ask. Why? I mean why me?"

The smile on Yamada's face faded a bit. "Simple. You don't like Shido-Sensei, and the feeling is mutual. I can't fire the man for certain reasons, but if I can aggravate him in other ways then I'll take it. Besides your English and Japanese are impeccable, some of the best I've heard from a non-native speaker and you seem to work well with the students. I've heard how Hirano-san's been improving in his classes and he seems to be in better shape. You seem to have helped him and I hope you can share that with some of the other students." The smile on his face returning.

"Well in that case I'll do my best and thank-you for the opportunity sir."

With that I got up and left the room with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I wasn't being fired heck it was actually a bit of a step UP! Miss Yamazaki stared a bit at the good mood I seemed to be in and I ignored her in return. As I headed out of the office I paused then turned and changed the direction I was originally heading. "I need to tell Shizuka about this."


	4. Chapter 4

It took a few weeks before I was allowed to begin assisting one of the teachers in their classes. My superior was an older man by the name of Minato Kurokawa, a shorter man even for Japan who seemed to buzz with energy and seemed truly passionate in his work.

When he introduced me to the class a few people gasped in surprise, it wasn't like I was completely unknown. A big Gaijin like myself working as a Janitor was going to make people take notice and few people had heard how I'd taken Kohta Hirano under my wing, and his confidence had grown in the last month since he'd started strength training along with some weight loss. However, me showing up in a pair of Khaki slacks and a red polo shirt instead of the Custodial outfit that could be generously called a tent seemed to have knocked many of them for a loop.

Kohta was the first to break the silence. "Mr. Brody? When did you become a teacher?" The rest of the class turned back to look at him, all a bit surprised that he'd spoken up and many that he seemed to know me.

I grinned and nodded in his direction. "That's Brody-Sensei while we're in the classroom, Mr. Hirano. As for my new job, apparently Principal Yamada decided that with Miss Clare going home he needed a new assistant teacher quickly and apparently my Japanese is good enough to pass muster for the teaching job. Besides, he didn't want to have to go through the madness of the JET program's paperwork. Have you seen the forms? I have, if you bound all those papers into a single book you could club an ox to death with the thing." I shuddered dramatically to drive home the point. Which promptly got a laugh out of most of the class.

I chuckled with them for a moment, before I continued with my introduction. "If anyone's wondering how I know Hirano, well, I had made an agreement with Principal Yamada about a month and a half ago. If I made sure to clean up after myself then I could use the weight room here to my heart's content. About a month ago I had met Mr. Hirano, and I'd noticed he'd been having some troubles and I'd offered to have him join my strength training regimen. And now you know my past. So let's continue with this class then. Yamada-Sensei, I guess you take the stage now?"

I backed away and let Yamada do the heavy lifting, my job seemed to be having an example of a native speaker to hear and practice as well as some cultural exposure.

The high point that day was when I was telling them not to be afraid to practice their English, otherwise they'd never learn. "It doesn't really matter how your grammarstructure sounds. Well, it does, but not as much as it might in other languages. The thing about English is that it's a bastard language, pardon my French (an idiom that got a chuckle from those that got it), meaning that the structure was broken from the old Anglo-Saxon when the Normans came over and brought their French and you can speak the words of the sentence in plenty of orders and still be understood.

You might also catch some words from other languages interspersed through American English, that comes from how we had people from all over the world coming and bringing their mother tongues with them. There's a joke I've come across before that English, especially American English, is the language that clubs other languages over the heads in a dark alley then rifles through their pockets for loose grammar."

Once that one got through to them, that got them laughing even harder. I took a quick bow. "Thank you! I'll be here all week, and the week after that."

Once classes were done, I was heading over to the Nurse's office to speak with Shizuka about how my first day of classes had gone, when I almost bumped into a young lady coming out of the office. The first thing I registered was long dark hair with a purple shade to it. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, miss." I bowed in apology, then my eyes widened for an instant when I got a better look at my companion.

Besides the purple hair which was easily as long as Shizuka's, she also had blatantly non-Japanese blue eyes and an angular look to her face, reminding me of nothing so much as a bird of prey, those eyes had the same intensity and banked ferocity, just waiting to be let loose. Yep, I'd just met another member of the HOTD team, nation-wide acclaimed kendoka Saeko Busujima. She was easily as tall as Shizuka though not nearly as...bountiful, though she certainly had nothing to worry about on that front and what was I thinking this was a student! Likely one of mine!

Thankfully she didn't seem to have been too flustered as she bowed respectfully and said; "No, you did nothing wrong Brody-sensei, I opened that door at the wrong moment and I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Well no harm no fuss then, I guess." I said with a grin. Then I remembered where she'd walked out of. "Erm, I hope I'm not prying, but what brings you here to the Nurse's office, you're not hurt are you?" I glanced her over looking for bruises or other injuries, spotting nothing.

"Oh no, I'm alright. I was just taking one of my teammates here, he sprained his wrist during practice today." She replied, seemingly giving me a once-over as well, not like someone interested in the opposite sex but like someone sizing up someone else for a fight.

"Well, I won't delay you from your club activities, miss, so have a good day." I bowed and she did as well, turning around and striding off back towards wherever the kendo dojo was located… wait a minute…

"Erm, wait! Hold on, Miss Busujima, if I could have a moment." I called out and trotted after her.

She stopped and turned around, curious what my reason for stopping her could be. "Yes, Brody-Sensei?" Her eyes were now a bit curious.

"You said you were part of the Kendo club, yes?" I asked, a plan beginning to form in my mind. "I wanted to ask you a favor. You see, an acquaintance of mine was an avid weapons collector, especially of Dark Ages European gear. But when he had to give some of his stuff away I ended up receiving some of it. Thing is, I've been wanting to learn how to use it for a while now, but I haven't had anywhere to practice with them."

"And you wish to use the Kendo Dojo to practice?" She asked, her eyebrows arched.

"Erm, yes, but I haven't managed to find a club member before now and ask them, let alone their teacher, advisor or instructor if I could use the facilities, unless that'd be too presumptive." I said a bit sheepishly.

Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "What are they?" The look in her eyes seemed to indicate that she thought I might have a bunch of movie prop junk.

"A Frankish Francisca battle axe, a German Iron Age long spear, and a full sized Germanic Round Shield with an Iron Boss, they're all authentically forged and combat ready,though I can't tell you the maker they seem to be excellently made from what I could tell." I couldn't help the small satisfaction I felt when her eyes widened at my words.

"And they really ARE authentic?" Her tone was now a bit curious.

"Authentic enough that I managed to hack a branch thicker than my wrist right off a tree over in the park. Had to run like the hounds of hell were after me I'll admit. Some old lady spotted me hacking at trees and was calling for the police….please forget I said that." I winced at the memory of that when I'd smuggled my weapons to the local park to try and get some practice with them. Apparently ROB had supernaturally sharpened them as they were razor sharp and hadn't lost their edge in the slightest even after whacking on a tree with the ax for a minute.

"Interesting…." She mused to herself, a spark flashing in her eyes. "Well, I have no issue with that nor should our advisor. When would you be practicing?"

"Oh, erm, later in the evening. Usually I lift weights starting around 6:30 in the evening for about an hour, along with some endurance and sprints. But I think I could replace a few days of practice with my gear every evening."

"Very well, then I'll see you at 6:30 tomorrow." With that she turned and headed to her club.

"Thank you... wait what?" I spluttered. I felt like I'd missed something here… ah well, I got a place to practice without old biddies accusing me of herbicide so that's a plus.

I walked into Shizuka's office. And was surprised to see that Shizuka didn't have the usual white blouse and black skirt she usually wore. Instead, she had a blue tank top with an unbuttoned white shirt and white, looser fitting skirt on.

She was writing something down on some sort of form when she looked over at the door and saw me standing in the door. "Oh Tom! Hello, how was your first day teaching?"

She walked over to the door with a slight spring in her step and her wide smile on her face. Still was a treat every time I saw her.

"It went fine, Shizuka, the students seemed to like me well enough, even managed to get them to laugh a few times and they seemed to pay attention."

"That's great, Tom, I knew you had it in you." Her smile was, if anything, even brighter, then she started fidgeting a bit and averted her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

She snapped back at me then glanced at the young man sitting in one of the chairs, struggling very hard to look anywhere else but at the doorway.

I nodded and stepped out of the room and back into the hallway. She followed and closed the office door behind her.

"Well, some of my old college classmates were having a get together tonight. But my roomate Rika decided that she wanted to join us at the last minute, since she was a classmate as well, but now we've got an odd number of people and... well, Iwaswonderingifyoucouldcomealongwithus?" The last bit she blurted out in a bit of a tumble and it took me a moment to decipher what she'd said.

I blinked for a moment then slowly asked; "You sure the others won't mind me coming along?"

"No, not at all, at least I don't think they would. But it's better to ask for forgiveness then for permission right?" She said that with more conviction that the situation warranted, but that was part of her charm.

I considered this for a moment, I wasn't exactly a social guru and this was a bit daunting but one look as Shizuka's face and all objections turned to dust and blew away in the proverbial wind….yep...I had it bad alright….

"Well, I've been needing to get out more and now I can say I'm a school teacher instead of a janitor, it's got a bit more dignity to it don't you think?" I said with a smile.

"So you'll come? Thank you so much! I'll be sure to tell Rika. Here, let me give you the address." She handed me the business card for a bar of some sort that was located on the far side of the city. Hmm...hadn't been there before.

"Alright, I'll be there."

"Thank you again, Tom!" She surprised me by giving me a big bear hug… promptly short-circuiting my brain for several minutes while she went back into her office. I wasn't sure HOW, exactly, I managed to get back to my apartment that evening, but I distinctly recall humming We Are the Champions at some point.


	5. Chapter 5

It took me about half an hour to wash my face and change my clothes to something a bit more casual. Shizuka had called me and told me that this wasn't a formal event in the slightest, so casual was best.

When I'd gotten the teaching job Principal Yamada had given me an advance on my pay to get myself some clothes to wear for teaching, considering my Custodial work clothes and workout clothes weren't going to cut it, to put it mildly. While I'd braved the local clothes store, I'd gotten myself some jeans and t-shirts along with a jacket for the colder weather when it would eventually come.

Tonight, I'd worn a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a black t-shirt with nothing adorning it. I didn't bother with the grey, hooded jacket I'd also purchased, considering how warm the weather was getting. After that, I'd hopped on the local bus and rode over to the bar that Shizuka and her old classmates had rented for the evening. I watched the town roll by, occasionally taking notes on the layout of certain roads, locations of hills, bridges, buildings, where people seemed to be the most concentrated and where they weren't, all of these notes were jotted down in a small black notebook I had started using a few weeks ago when I'd realized just how long it had been since I had arrived here and had begun to really prepare for when Z-day arrived.

I had also begun gathering information about just where exactly Tokonosu WAS in relation to the rest of the country.

After a bit of work I'd finally figured out where Tokonosu was located. Tokonosu City was a part of the larger Nagoya metro-area one of the three great metropolitan concentrations of Honshu, the later was also the capital of Aichi Prefecture which consisted of the old provinces of Owari and Mikawa of Sengoku Jidai fame. Tokonosu had been the center of the holding of a Daimyo clan known as Takagi whom had built up the area as an homage to Osaka, including their castle which was a miniature of Osaka castle itself.

According to local history, the Takagi clan had originally been sworn to the Toyotomi's and had suffered during the defeat of Ishida Mitsunari at the battle of Sekigahara. They had, luckily, not been large enough to warrant destruction and had been allowed a reduced part of their ancestral holdings in Tokonosu where they had remained ever since. One Takagi ancestor had managed to visit Osaka castle and had convinced the Shogunate to allow them to mimic the larger castle. How he'd managed to do that was unfortunately lost in the mists of time, but folklore went that he challenged the incumbent Shogun's champion swordsman for the right and had won after a bout that had nearly killed both men.

The family had survived the Meiji restoration and had been awarded the title of Baron which they had held until the end of the Second World War and the occupation. The Takagi clan had been wrecked by the war financially and had ended up being forced to sell their family castle in the wake of the old land holdings being broken up.

They hadn't left Tokonosu though, continuing to serve the area for years. There were also rumors that the current head of the house, one Souichiro Takagi, had plans to purchase back his ancestral home from the government, though many considered claims like that idiotic, but the fact that they existed at all were a strong indicator of the waves Souichiro was making in the city.

I grimaced at the thought of meeting the man, from what I had remembered from the Manga and Anime the man was hardass through and through, and the fact that he was a right-wing nationalist party leader made me sweat a bit at the thought of actually meeting him after Z-day. Hopefully the man wouldn't outright kick me out... or his followers...well, I'd cross that bridge when it came up.

I was just coming to that resolution when I noticed that I was at my stop. I quickly got off of the bus and glanced at the address again along with the slightly gibberishy directions that Shizuka had apparently given me in my haze. Seriously, who writes smiley faces on directions... heh, even had a chibi picture of her face in the corner… she had talent with that…

Chuckling, I tucked the paper back into my pocket and went on my way. Glancing around at the towering buildings that made up this part of the city, watching the mass of people moving through its busy streets. A cold feeling entered the bottom of my stomach as I thought about how this was all going to disappear in less than a year's time. Thousands of these people were going to be dead very soon and most likely worse than that. It was a chilling thought. I wished that I could somehow stop this from happening or at least spare the people of this city, there were people here I considered friends. I shook my head, there's not a damn thing I could do to stop what was coming, merely use the tools I had to do the best I could. Beyond that, well, I was merely a man and couldn't hope to do beyond what a man could do, the rest was in God's hands.

I was shaken out of my musings when I heard a female voice shouting my name. "TOM! Hey! Tom! Over here!"

I looked around and spotted Shizuka waving at me from about 30 feet up the sidewalk I'd come. She was wearing the same outfit I'd seen her in earlier that day and looking DAMN good in it. Next to her in a pair of black slacks and a white shirt with an unbuttoned black shirt was a tanned woman with purple hair, though unlike Saeko's this one's hair was had a more reddish tint to it. She was wearing a pair of dark shades and a slightly exasperated look on her face as she watched her friend's antics.

Ah so this must be the famous Rika Minami I'd heard so much about from Shizuka… also the one with a small armory... useful to have, I must say. Well, my dad always said that win a girl's friends and you win the girl... wait what?

I was shaken out of my thoughts when Shizuka actually hugged me in public, eliciting the ire of everything with a Y chromosome within a two mile radius... not that I even thought about that when it happened.

"Oh I'm so glad you came Tom, I was worried you might have changed your mind."

"W-wouldn't have missed it for the world Shizuka." I managed to wheeze out.

Shizuka stepped back, a smile still on her face. "Oh, where are my manners? Tom, this is my roommate and best friend since college, Rika Minami. Rika-chan, this is Tom Brody,he's the new teacher at the school I work at."

"A pleasure to meet you, Minami-san." I said with a polite bow. I think I was getting the hang of the catch-all gesture.

"Ah, so you're the one Shizuka's been bending my ear about for the past month." Rika quipped, a smirk on her pretty face.

"Rika-chan!" Shizuka squawked, a blush on her face.

I could feel my face heating up as well. "Well, I hope it's been all good things. She's mentioned you before as well, law enforcement, right?"

"That's right. First Squadron chief for the prefecture and SAT sniper, so you'd better not ever tick me off, mister." She said with a smile.

"No fear of that, Minami-san, I like my innards where they are, thank you very much." I said with a chuckle, though I knew damn well that she could blow my head off with easeif the need ever arose.

That set her laughing again. "Ha, you didn't mention he had a sense of humor, Shizuka. Though you were right and he does fill in a shirt nicely."

"Rika-chan, I never said that." Shizuka all but shouted back.

I wisely kept my mouth shut, no way no how was I going to enter that minefield.

"Oh Shizuka, you know I was just teasing you, you're so easy to get riled up sometimes." Rika smirked.

I coughed and said; "Well, ladies, shall we move on while some of us still have our dignity?"

That got another laugh and the three of us went on our way. The two women leading the way while I followed a step behind.

The bar they'd mentioned was only a few blocks further up the street. It wasn't the most expensive looking place but it seemed inviting, and I could smell something cooking as well as other voices beginning to enjoy themselves.

"This the place?" I asked. When they nodded I stepped aside and gestured with my hand. "Ladies first, then." I said with a smile.

"Oh, thank you." Shizuka said and giggled while Rika said; "What a gentleman." Some slight humor in her voice.

"Just what I was taught, Ma'am." I replied... an American Southern accent added to Japanese... sounded kinda funny… but I wasn't about to break character as they both smiled again and I followed after them, thinking that this might be pretty fun. 

This was not fun. Well, actually, to be fair the evening HAD been pretty fun. Shizuka and Rika's classmates had been a bit surprised to see a burly American Gaijin walk into the bar behind the two women. But when Shizuka explained why I'd been invited and had introduced me they'd been pretty quick to welcome me.

The rest of the evening was spent with the former classmates reminiscing about classes, classmates, professors and college shenanigans. Not being an Alumni of their Alma Mater I'd listened to the conversations around me. Well, that was the plan but the others were curious about the Gaijin that had acted as ballast and occasionally brought me into the conversation, asking about my home, why I'd come to Japan, my work and how I knew Shizuka.

I managed to deflect anything that might raise more questions about my place here and I was able to focus their attention on my sudden promotion partially as a snub at Mr. Shido.

"That whole family's rotten to the core." One drunken male Alumni had said. "His father's a crooked politician, his mother was a lush, I've heard his bastard brother's just as bad and seems to be set up to replace him considering he's already an intern for his father's group. And I can't imagine Shido's all that happy about being replaced and he's got all those young people to vent and manipulate. S'not right, not right at all."

While I agreed, it seemed more than a little tactless to say so in public and said as much. The man merely shrugged and stuck to his words.

The conversation thankfully shifted to other trains of thought, or so I thought. Another female classmate was looking between me and Shizuka, before settling on me and saying; "So, are the two of you an item? Is that why Shizuka-chan here decided to invite you?"

"N-no nothing like that at all. We're just friends and co-workers is all." I managed to splutter out.

Shizuka was red as a beet as well, though if that was the booze or the conversation I couldn't judge.

The friend shrugged. "Well if you're not, then could I borrow him?" She teased Shizuka with a smile. "Younger, a foreigner, AND he seems to take care of himself. Me likey."

I promptly choked and nearly drowned myself on the coke I'd been drinking, ROB did NOT prepare me for this new predicament!

While I was trying to breathe and restart my brain, Shizuka beat me to the punch with an answer, sort of. The pretty woman had been sitting next to me for most of the evening, I guess because she was my unofficial sponsor for this get together, which meant she was easily able to lean deeply into me and giggle softly; "Tom-san'sss... not like that…"And with that she seemed to fall asleep with her head on my shoulder. That set the rest of the party howling.

I weakly joined them. "Alright, I guess Marikawa-san's had enough for tonight. Hey Miss Mina...mi?" I looked around for the tanned purplette but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Um, where is she?" I asked, a bit nervous.

"She left over an hour ago, something about a situation down at the station. She said that you might need to take Shizuka-san home." A still somewhat-sober voice called out.

"What?" I said, a bit stunned.

A few minutes later I managed to get the young woman up on her feet and towards the door.

The rest of the evening was NOT what I'd called fun. First, Shizuka was too far gone to tell me her damn address, then when I found her phone and tried to call Rika the woman either wouldn't or couldn't answer her phone.

Then I learned that the buses had stopped running and the area didn't have a Taxi service, which meant I had to half walk half drag a giggly Shizuka Marikawa several miles to my place to hold her over at least until she sobered. It didn't help matters that she practically clung to me the entire way and mentioned at least twice that we looked like a couple.

Then about half a mile from my place it started to rain. "GOD DAMMIT WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO THROW AT ME?!" I had half roared.

"Thatz not nicee Tom." Shizuka had muttered.

Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, I managed to drag my companion up my stairs and into my apartment. "Finally made it I HATE summer rains!" I muttered.

I then tried to towel myself off as best I could after handing Shizuka one as well. Once we'd dried our hair I'd handed her a pair of my shorts and a t-shirt. "You'll get sick if you stay in that wet outfit, so I guess you can borrow some of mine while we dry out yours, probably won't fit right." I muttered.

Shizuka thanked me, then began to lift her wet top. "Wait! Not here! I have a bathroom, you can change there!" I managed to choke out.

Shizuka had tilted her head then said "Okay" before walking into the bathroom. Taking advantage of the privacy I'd quickly changed my own clothes before pulling out some blankets and an extra pillow. Even if she'd sobered up enough that I wasn't fearing for her life, I wasn't about to let her out into that rainstorm, not this late.

I had finished setting out another sleeping spot when Shizuka had walked out of my bathroom, the shirt and pants not fitting her radically differing body shape, but damn me if she didn't look good in it.

"Alright, Shizuka, you can sleep here on my futon, I'll take this blanket over here." Once she showed that she understood that, I made sure she was settled down and had the blanket over her before bedding down myself. Shizuka was already snoring faintly when I finally managed to lay down and drift off myself.

The next morning, I woke up with an odd sensation next to me. I didn't recognize it in my sleepy haze but it felt nice. I blinked a few times and managed to turn my head to see to my mild horror that Shizuka had gotten out of her futon and had gotten under my blanket with me, and not only that, she'd managed to wrap both arms around my chest like I was a giant stuffed animal... ah, so that's what those two things were, pressing into my side.

As I watched that sleeping beauty next to me, one word escaped my lips. "Fuck."

"Language, Tom-kun."


	6. Chapter 6

It took me about ten minutes to finally extricate myself from her grip - she was amazingly strong for her size - but I finally managed to escape without waking her up.

After checking to see that she was still asleep, I padded over to my refrigerator, opened the door and grabbed a coke bottle. I quickly twisted the cap off and chugged the 20 oz of caffeinated goodness. When I was a kid I'd never been able to stand the smell of coffee, just walking down the coffee aisle would make my stomach turn. After watching my parents always drinking the stuff in the morning I'd sworn to myself that I would never become reliant on caffeine in the morning to get going, if only to avoid being forced to need that foul smelling java. I chuckled mildly to myself, I still ended up being like ninety percent of the first world, I just had a different delivery system for my poison.

I was about to let out the routine belch I normally made after chugging a coke but stopped myself and was a little more discreet instead. I DID have a lady over, after all, and I didn't want to wake her up with a burp I swore had made dust fall from the ceiling at least once. Once I'd vented the carbonation from my stomach, I tossed the bottle into a bin saved for recycling and then set to work making breakfast. It was just some simple scrambled eggs as I wasn't usually one for the so-called most important meal of the day, preferring to eat a bigger meal later on, but I didn't know Shizuka's own eating habits and I'd always heard that a guy who made breakfast for a girl he had over was a good one.

That made me pause for a moment and think about the odd situation I was in. Back home, if someone had told me that I was going to be fixing breakfast for a gorgeous woman after she'd spent the night at my place, I'd have never believed them. Yet here I was, funny how the world worked sometimes. The question was, did I want to keep this, whatever 'this' was, going?

I glanced over towards Shizuka's sleeping form, who'd just so happened to kick off the blanket she'd been covered with, shirt I'd loaned her hiking up, exposing most of her midriff…

...whelp, that had answered that question.

Resolving that question, I pushed the eggs off the skillet onto a plate, placed said plate with silverware on my small table that officially sat two, even though I'd had trouble eating on it just by myself sometimes. Then I walked gently back over to Shizuka and gently shook her awake. "Shizuka. Could you wake up? I've got breakfast if want any."

It took her a while before she managed to return from the land of Nod, her eyes almost completely shut as she tried to take in her location with her sleep-addled mind. Eventually she looked down at the clothing she was wearing. That must have clicked in her mind, panic flooded her as she turned bright red. It was oddly adorable, but I'm not the sort to allow people to wallow in misconceptions.

"Relax, Shizuka, nothing happened. You were too drunk to tell me how to take you home and your friend had left earlier without telling me where you lived and she wouldn't answer when I tried to call her. Things kinda went downhill from there as I decided to have you sleep last night off at my place. Unfortunately, the weather decided to disagree and we got soaked. I lent you some dry clothes and you managed to change yourself in my bathroom while I changed out here. Don't worry, everyone's honor is intact." I finished my explanation with a grin.

Shizuka proceeded to go beet red and bowed her head. "I'm so sorry Tom-san. I shouldn't have drunk so much. I know I get silly when I drink, and I also got the both of us soaking wet, we could have gotten sick from that."

"Relax, Shizuka, it wasn't any trouble. Well, okay, it was frankly a pain in the ass, but that was the rain more than anything else and that was neither of our faults." I frowned. "If anything, it was your friend Rika's fault that we were in that mess. Seriously, she could have told us ya'll's address when she was leaving. Next time you see her, could you tell her that I'd appreciate it if she wouldn't vanish on an incapacitated friend?"

Shizuka spoke up then. "It wasn't Rika-chan's fault, if she's called then she has to go, no matter what she was doing before." An angry glint flashed in her eyes and I knew that I'd overstepped myself.

"Alright, alright...sorry I said anything. That offer of breakfast still stands if you like." I said a bit sheepishly.

Shizuku humphed before getting out of the blankets and striding over the table, sitting down and after looking at my eggs for a moment she took the fork I had placed on the table and took a bite of the eggs. She chewed them for a moment before swallowing. "Not bad, Tom-san, do you have salt?"

"Yes, let me get it for you." I quickly retrieved the salt and placed it in front of her. She added a small shake and took another bite.

"Better." She said in a short tone.

"Glad you enjoy it. I'll admit I'm not the best cook around." I replied, slightly relieved.

We sat there in silence for a while before I ventured to talk again. "So, Shizuka… I had fun last night with you and your friends. I'm glad that you invited me."

Shizuka must have calmed down from my slighting of Rika as she smiled back at me. "I'm glad that you could come. It was fun as well. My old classmates seemed to like you."

"Well, that's good…" I paused, unsure of how to continue. I rubbed the back of my neck and glanced around my apartment, nerves making finding what to say next damn near impossible.

Shizuka noticed my discomfiture after finishing off her eggs and spoke up; "Yes, Tom?" I noticed that she'd dropped the honorific again.

"Oh, erm, well... I was just thinking... I wouldn't mind going out with you again... just the two of us... there's a movie that's coming out soon and I was wondering if you'd like...to go see it... with me?" Eloquence, thy name is NOT Tom Brody when asking women out, especially gorgeous women, even IF you've become pretty good friends with them. I KNEW I'd screwed this up and I could feel my cheeks flushing. Dammit, I thought I'd gone beyond this shit!

Shizuka watched me doing an impressive impression of a fire hydrant for few agonizing heartbeats, then with that grin that'd nearly made me street pizza that first day I'd arrived here she replied. "I thought you'd never ask, Tom-kun. Rika-chan assured me her plan would work but I didn't believe her."

What.

Her smile widened as she got up from the table and patted me on my cheek, the touch of her skin almost like a brand. "You know, Tom-kun, you shouldn't make a girl wait, she might decide to be sneaky to get things moving. Sunday sounds wonderful, but let me go see if my clothes have dried off, we'll talk about which movie we'll go see after that."

With that she walked into the bathroom.

"So, was that a yes?"


	7. Chapter 7

As I headed out from my final class of the day, I still hadn't lost the silly grin that I had had plastered on my face since that morning. I had a date, for the first time in my entire life I had a date! Not only that, but it was with one of the most gorgeous women in Japan, if not the world, though that might have been bias talking. I don't think my feet touched the ground that entire day, and I'm pretty sure that people were looking at me funny but who cared!

It was in that hazy state of bliss that I was brought back to reality when I heard a female voice calling my name, one that sounded oddly familiar. I turned around and was sucked back to reality when I spotted one Miss Saeko Busujima looking at me askance. "Sensei? Are you alright?"

That quickly reminded me of the conversation I'd had with the young woman the day before. "Oh right, sorry, I had a bit of a crazy evening the day before, I'd forgotten you'd allowed me to use your dojo. I haven't even brought my stuff today. Terribly sorry, Ms. Bujishima." I quickly bowed in apology. "But if you're willing to wait I can go get it from my apartment, I literally live a couple of minutes away."

She looked me over. A girl that age shouldn't be able to berate a grown-ass man with just her eyes. Then she seemed to shrug it off. "I heard from the nurse's office about your... adventure last night. A man shouldn't apologize for doing a good deed, just come to the practice room as soon as you can." With a faint smile on her face she turned and began heading towards the kendo room. For some reason, I felt like I'd passed an extremely important test.

Deciding not to dwell on that particular line of thought, I exited the school grounds and ran down back to my apartment. I quickly walked over to my closet and opened the door, pushing aside the clothing I kept in there including a leather biker's outfit, something I hoped I could use when THAT day came, and pulled out the shield, axe, and spear, all three of them wrapped in heavy cloth.

After checking to make sure that they were still in good condition, I strapped the shield over my back, stuck the axe through my belt and kept the spear over my shoulder like a hobo stick. I looked ridiculous, but it was the best I could do at the time.

Locking the door behind me I quickly walked back up the hill to the school, purposefully ignoring the looks a few people gave me with the wrapped weapons. It only took me another few minutes to get back to the school proper and find the Kendo Dojo.

It was a traditional-looking building set on the school grounds, someone must have greatly appreciated the art when they donated to the school.

Slipping off my shoes, I quickly entered the building. I noted that Busujima was kneeling towards the back of the dojo, she'd managed to change into a kendo uniform in the time it took me to get back to the school. When she saw me shut the door behind me she smiled and rose to her feet.

"That was quicker than I expected, Sensei."

"Well, like I said, I live right near the school so it was no problem getting to my apartment and back."

"Convenient, so Sensei, let me see this gear you're wanting to learn how to use. Axe fighting isn't my area of expertise but I might be able to point out a few things."

"Alright then, let's take a look at these." And with that I unwrapped the axe and shield from their coverings. I heard a slight gasp from Saeko when I unwrapped the axe blade. I was a blithering moron when it came to weapons but even I could tell that a master had put his heart into forging the axe head, the curve of theFrancisca battle-axe's head was absolutely perfect, and the steel glistened like ice in the afternoon sun.

I took a few steps back from Saeko and after hefting the axe a few times, I gave it a few practice swings, it was perfectly balanced as far as I could tell and I felt a sort of rightness with the world when I swung the blade in a few lazy swings.

I then placed the blade on the ground and turned my attention to the shield. It seemed to be a work of art as well, made of solid wooden planking as well as having an iron rimming around the edge and tough leather making up the front. The front was painted a pure white background and a black raven painted in Norse style, if I recalled it actually the same Raven stitched into the Raven banner that the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok bore with him when they led the Great Heathen Army to the shores of Britain to fulfill their oath to avenge their father's death. ROB, or whatever power had sent me here, had a sense for the dramatic. The boss was made of solid steel and had some etchings that reminded me of Norse knotwork, wonderfully made, and I think I could see dragons and other creatures in the boss.

Even though I'd seen them before, it was still a sight to see these obvious works of master craftsmanship.

I slid my hand into the boss-grip, while not light it wasn't as monstrously heavy as I'd expected. I shifted the thing high to low and back several times before punching forward with it a few times. Once I was satisfied with that I picked the axe back up, holding it in my right hand while I kept the shield in my left. Bending my legs a hair and keeping on the balls of my feet, I moved my right foot back so that my shield was forward.

At this point Saeko spoke up. "You might have the right idea, Sensei, but you're too stiff, relax a bit more and straighten your legs a bit. Yes, like that. Feeling more comfortable?"

"Actually yes, I am, thank you." I replied, bobbing my head towards her in thanks. With that, I began some practice swings, just using what felt right to me. Overhand, underhand, sideswing, punch forward, hook and pull, punch with the handle and shield punch, they were a simple set of strikes, but considering that I only had about ten months to learn them simple was ideal. For about half an hour I continued to practice with the axe and shield with strike after strike after strike. It wasn't perfect and I was sure there were better ways to go about this, but I needed to start somewhere.

It was about then I noticed that Saeko was watching my - what I felt was - moronic flailing about. She wasn't in her kneeling position and when I looked around I saw that she'd been practicing on a dummy along one side of the building, but it was still odd to be watched with such intensity. "Is something the matter, Miss Busujima?" I finally asked.

"No, Brody-Sensei... you said you've never actually used that axe or shield before?" She replied, a slight look of interest on her face.

"Other than a few swings in the park one time, no. Why do you ask? My flailing about that obvious?" I asked with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"No, it's not that bad, but you've got some impressive stamina, wielding a blade requires the use of muscles you normally don't use or at least not in the way you need, most who first start working with a weapon would be spent after a few minutes and you've been going for half an hour already." She replied.

I blinked at that, I'd always had pretty good stamina and the ability to shrug off discomfiture, but half an hour? I didn't even realize so much time had gone by, I was kind of impressed with myself. "Huh, well, that's good, I guess." Right then the muscles of my arms and shoulders tightened up, the abuse I'd put them through finally catching up.

Saeko noticed it immediately. "You over-exerted yourself, Sensei, you might want to get a drink of water and rest a few minutes before trying to continue."

I nodded and strode out and around the side of the building where I'd spotted a water fountain - the only sign of modernity in or around the building I'd spotted so far - and gulped down some water, quenching my thirst. Once I was finished I stood back up and stretched by arms in an attempt to keep any cramping or stiffness out. As I stretched I assessed my current situation. I still had about ten months before Z-Day came, in the past couple of months I'd been physically training myself to the best of my admittedly hazy memories of fitness and strength training I'd done with my high school football team and my father.

I grimaced at that. My dad, my mom, my younger brother and sister. After I'd gotten the teaching job I'd decided to try and look up my family to see if they were here, if there was a possible other me living on the other side of the world. My findings weren't comforting. My search was a failure, there was no record of any of my relatives or the firm my dad worked at.

On a whim I decided to look up my grandfather, a WWII veteran whom I was named for. It was then that I found out why my family didn't seem to exist. On a site dedicated to the Old Hickory Division was the name of a Tom Brody who was killed in action during Operation Cobra when the 30th Infantry got hit by friendly fire bombing. It had floored me when I saw it. I simply stared at that name over and over and over again. I looked up Operation Cobra, I saw how a British Bombing run had screwed up on their targeting and had dropped their payload right on top of the Division, causing a hundred casualties, my grandfather of this world apparently being one of them.

Luckily, that had been a Sunday, meaning that I wasn't missed because I was in a haze for the entire day. It had also finally hammered home that, without a shadow of a doubt, I was no longer home and that I likely wasn't ever going back. For the first time in a long time I wept, I cried long and hard, I screamed, I shouted, I cursed, I threw things, stomped on the floor and even hurled things against the wall. I prayed long and hard, begging God, ROB, anyone to take me back home away from this madness and horror of a world about to die in waves of the undead. I begged for the answer to why I'd been brought here, for personal amusement, to act as a hero? I wasn't a hero, I didn't have it in me to be one, I was a 25 year old college graduate, I'd never been in the army, I'd never had any serious leadership experience. I had the social skills of a rock, there was no way in hell I could survive in this world, let alone thrive.

I'd finally exhausted myself when the door to my closet groaned open. I had probably shaken it loose in my temper tantrum, though I was sure I'd shut that door properly. When it had opened wide, the weapons that had been given to me on my arrival had fallen out with a thudding clatter. The axe and spear heads and the shield boss glinted in the midday light that beamed into my room and hit them dead on. The Raven on the shield almost seemed to flap its wings.

A rush of warmth and confidence seemed to fill me up from deep in my core. Whatever force had brought me here wouldn't have given me so much time and such gear it had wanted to make me suffer and die quickly. I walked over to the fallen weapons, I picked the shield up and held it in my left, I hefted the axeand gave it a few practice twirls then stuck it into my belt. I then picked up the spear, beautifully balanced with a diamond shaped head about ten inches long and razor sharp. I gave it a few practice thrusts before holding it like I would a practice staff. I may be way over my head but I wasn't helpless. Taking comfort in that, I carefully put the equipment back into the closet and closed the door. I didn't have anywhere to practice with that gear, not yet. But I intended to rectify that as soon as I could.

The rest of the apartment dwellers never commented on my outburst but I did see a bottle of sake sitting next to my door the next morning with a short note saying, "It won't cure what ails ya but it'll numb it long enough for you to deal with it." No name was written below.

That bottle was still in my home, unopened. I'd also taken to wearing a crucifix under my shirt and next to my skin from that day on.

I was actually fingering the golden crucifix when Saeko interrupted my reminiscing behind the dojo. "Sensei? Are you alright?"

Blinking away my wool gathering, I straightened up and stretched one more time before turning back to Saeko. "Yes, I'm doing fine, Miss Busujima. Would it be alright if I practiced here for a little while longer?" I asked. "I wasn't planning to go longer than another fifteen minutes, if that's alright with you and your club members. Where are the rest of them anyway?" I hadn't seen anyone else besides Saeko since I came here.

I was actually a bit surprised when Saeko seemed flustered as she answered. "Food poisoning. I told them that a sushi platter that cheap was a poor choice."

The image of the normally stoic young swordswoman that agitated was enough to make me start laughing. It took me a few seconds to get back under control but eventually I managed to wheeze out; "I see, my sympathies, Miss Busujima and I hope your clubmates have a speedy recovery."

Saeko flushed for a second then bowed. "Thank you for the gesture, Sensei. As for your question, yes you can continue for a while longer. If you want, you could keep your gear here if you like."

Smiling, I bowed again. "Thank you Miss Busujima, that'd be greatly appreciated, it certainly makes it easier to not have to carry all that stuff back and forth from my house."

"Not at all, Sensei, it's a pleasure to see someone interested in the old methods of combat, even if it isn't with the sword." She answered.

She seemed to consider something for a moment then continued; "If you'd like some help with the spear as well, I think I might have an idea. I'm not experienced with that weapon but I know the captain of the Sojutsu club and she might be able to help you there."

I thanked her again and then went back into the Dojo to continue my practicing. The next day was the first time I met the next member of the original crew, one Rei Miyamoto.


	8. Chapter 8

The next afternoon, I was introduced to the Sojutsu club and their captain, a young lady by the name of Torako Saotome. I'd blinked at the surname but decided to ignore the joke that bubbled in my brain about swarms of fiances and cursed water. I quickly bowed at the smaller young woman, and thanked her for being willing to give me a few pointers.

Torako was somewhat cold when she replied; "I'm sorry to say, Sensei, that it's likely only going to be a few pointers. Our club is preparing for a big tournament and I need to give them my full attention if we're going to do well."

"I understand, just a quick rundown of how not to stab myself in the foot would be a great help by itself." I replied. Well, it was not what I was hoping for but I'd take what Icould get, and besides, whatever spear work they used likely wouldn't correlate with what I was going to be using it for besides the very basics. But like I'd told her, I'd take what I could get.

"So, could I see what your spear looks like? It'd help with what I need to start with your training." Torako asked.

"Ah, right here." I grabbed the cloth-wrapped bundle that had been leaning on the wall behind me. I handed it over to her, allowing the young woman to unwrap the cloth. The long Germanic Spearhead flashed under the light of the flourescent lights of the Sojutsu Club's dojo. The blade alone was a good ten inches in length with the sheathing that fit over the shaft adding about ten more inches to the thing, then there was the solid ash spear shaft. All told the thing was over seven feet in length and utterly deadly.

Torako hefted the thing, seeming to find the balancing point for it and grunting in satisfaction at what she found. Then she handed it back to me. "Not bad, Brody-Sensei, whoever made the spearhead and shaft was a true master of the craft. I hope you will treat such a fine weapon with the outmost respect it deserves."

"Of course I will, Miss Saotome." I answered, slight satisfaction that one experienced in the art I was trying to learn seemed to approve of my gear.

We were interrupted when the door to the Dojo slammed open and in dashed a pretty young girl, younger than Saotome. Her eyes were a chestnut brown with two antennae-like strands rising from her hairline. Ah, so this is Rei Miyamoto, I think I have a class with the young woman though I couldn't recall exactly.

Miyamoto seemed to be breathing heavily like she'd been running to the Dojo. "Miyamoto-san, so glad you could show up." Saotome answered dryly.

"I'm sorry, Senpai, I was talking with Shido-Sensei about a misunderstanding about my grades." The young woman apologized with a bow. Then she noticed me standing there. "Brody-Sensei? What brings you here?"

I smiled and bowed. "Good afternoon, Miss Miyamoto. I inherited a spear from a friend of mine and Miss Saotome happened to be nice enough to help me get started on learning how to use it." A concerned look spread across my face. "Is something the matter with Shido-Sensei?"

Rei grimaced and shook her head. "Nothing really, Sensei, there was just something funny going on with my grades in his class and I wanted to talk to him about it is all. Nothing to worry about."

I frowned for a moment. So the son of a bitch was already starting his revenge run on a young girl over what her father was doing to his father? Well, I'd do something about that if I could.

"Ah Koichi-San, I've been looking for you." A few days later I finally managed to track down the skinny bastard in one of the many hallways that made up the school here.

The bespectacled man turned around, his eyes not showing his thoughts as he pasted a smile on his face. "Good afternoon Brody-San. What can I do for you?"

"It's actually about a student of ours, Rei Miyamoto? I've heard she's been having trouble in your class?" I answered, keeping my voice even and polite.

"Yes, I know who you're talking about. What about her?" He answered his tone also flat but I had the feeling he was wondering where I was going with this.

"Well I just don't understand why she's having a hard time in your class. I'm the Assistant Teacher in her English class and she's doing really well. Not only that but when I asked around she doing great in her other classes too, yours is the only one she's struggling in at the moment. Why is that?" I looked him dead in the eyes with that last sentence demanding a good answer.

A condescending smirk spread across his face and he closed his eyes and turned his head slightly, "What can I say Brody-San? Every student has their problem subject. Can I help it if my class just so happens to be…"

With a snarl I grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and slammed him against the wall, actually lifting him a few inches off the ground. Then in a clipped tone I ground out, "Listen you SMUG Sonovabitch! I don't know what that poor girl's done to you but either you put her grades back to normal or so help me…."

"You'll what? Report me to the principle?" For a man threatened by someone at least fifty pounds heavier than him, he was amazingly calm about it. He glared at me with those snake like eyes of his. "He won't fire me. My father and brother have made sure of that.

Glaring at him I said, "What about your father's current problems with Officer Miyamoto's investigation on him for corruption charges? I'm sure people might notice if his son was going after an upstanding officer's daughter as retaliation."

That seemed to get to him as his eyes widened in shock for a moment, it didn't last long to my confusion. "I don't know how you learned about that but if you're resorting to blackmail than two can play at that."

Confused I let him back down to the ground. After straightening his jacket he turned back to me. "When I learned you became a teacher here I got curious about you. So I had someone I knew in the government track you down. There isn't much about you Brody-San, you appear in town not long before you got the Janitorial position here at the school.

"All your paper-work was in order but it seemed not many people remembered processing those papers; and when they tried to learn when you arrived in Japan there was nothing. You just appeared out of the blue with all official documents. Very suspicious Brody-san, very suspicious indeed. I'm sure there are plenty of people in government that would love to learn who you really are Brody-san, and I'm sure my family could assist in pushing that through." He finished with a grin.

That son of a bitch, my face reddened and I started to clench my fists so hard they began to tremble. "You...Son of A…."

"Yes, yes you've already insulted my mother once Brody-san, no need to repeat it." He cut me off with an incredible nonchalance.

Then he continued, "Now this is what is going to happen. We are going to forget we ever had this conversation and you stop looking into how I run my classes nor are you going to mention anything to anyone. Otherwise you will either; be deported, or be locked away in a small, dark room for a very long time are we clear Brody-san?"

I didn't say anything, it took everything not to just leap out at that bastard right then and there. Seeing I hadn't responded, he stepped closer and had his face a few inches from mine. "Perhaps you didn't hear me, Are We Clear Brody-San?"

"Crystal." I finally ground out.

"Excellent, I'm glad we could have this conversation. Well unless you have something else to say, have a nice day Brody-san" He then turned to leave but stopped at the last minute. "Oh, one more thing…"

He then backhanded me across my face, it wasn't a very strong blow but it did leave a red mark on my cheek, "That was for insulting my mother." He then walked off down the hallway. Leaving me with my impotent rage.

That evening I demolished a tree in one of the more secluded parts of the park. People interviewed on the news the next day said it looked like a deranged pack of lumberjacks had gone after the tree.

That Sunday I was still in something a foul mood but thankfully I had managed to hide it for the most part from Shizuka when we went on our date. The movie was something for a forgettable rom-com. Something about a man from the modern age who'd fallen through time to the Hiei-era and used his photographic memory of Shakespeare to woo some servant of a court noble woman. Unfortunately he sent his message to the wrong person and had half of the court ladies losing their damn minds over the beauty of his poems.

It made me chuckle a few times but was a bit forgettable otherwise. Shizuka enjoyed it though and I would be the first to admit it was nice how she grabbed my hand during some of the sappier moments of the film.

When I took her home (a really nice place to be honest, apparently being in the police paid well). She said her friend Rika forked the bill for most of it with Shizuka promising to make up for it once she became a proper doctor. She stopped at the doorway and smiled, "I had fun today Tom, I'd like to keep doing this."

Swallowing I said, "So would I Shizuka." Yes I didn't stutter that time. PROGRESS!

Then Shizuka surprised me when she turned around and kissed me on the cheek. "We'll have to do something else next Sunday Tom. I'll see you at the school tomorrow. Good-night."

"Y-yeah..goodnight." I squeaked out.

My feet didn't touch the ground the whole way home.

Several weeks later I was training with Kohta when he surprised me by speaking up during weight lifting. "Sensei. Could I ask you a favor?"

Pulling my earbuds out so I could pay attention to him. "In the weight room it's either Tom or Brody, but yes Kohta?"

"Well I was talking with some of the guys in the manga club and they noticed how I wasn't being bothered anymore and how I've gotten more fit lately, and they wanted to know how I did it. So I told them that you've been helping me with strength training and conditioning. It seems that they're curious about joining us and I told them that I'd have to speak with you first so…"

"If they want to join us I have no problem, so long as it doesn't interrupt anything important. We don't start until after club activities are over anyway. Just make sure they know what they're getting into. I'm not going to be cruel but even gentle is going to be hard in the beginning." A thought then began forming in my mind. It had been bothering me how I knew that a vast majority of the men, women, boys and girls at this school were likely going to die in less than a year.

But that didn't haven't to be that way. I'd been growing in leaps and bounds with my ax and spear work, maybe I could starting showing others a few pointers soon...so maybe...well I'd have to get the funds for it first.

"How many might be joining us?" I finally asked.

"Maybe five or six guys." He said, a slightly relieved look on his face. That's a start.

"Sounds fine to me. Tell them to come in tomorrow." I said.


	9. Chapter 9

The next afternoon, I was caught by surprise when, instead of the five that Kohta had said might have shown up, a full dozen young men had shown up. Most were first-years, though there were a couple of second years among them as well. I also noticed that most of them were that classic string-bean build of those who'd never lifted anything heavier than a bookbag. "Got my work cut out for me." I muttered under my breath.

"Alright boys, first question, do any of you have any pre-existing conditions that I might need to know about? Asthma, diabetes, chronic low blood-sugar or the like?" I asked in a clear voice, shaking most the guys out of their conversations or reading materials. When noone said anything I continued. "Alright 'gents, I feel like I need to warn you so listen up. This will not be a picnic, as Kohta over there can tell you this is going to be tough. I won't demand what you can't provide nor am I looking to push you to the point of breaking, but neither am I going to accept anything short of your best.

"Judging from your physiques, not a single one of you have ever lifted weights. Am I correct?"

I got nods from all of them.

"Right, first thing we're going to do is see where you boys stand. After that we'll start you on the same regimen Kohta's doing, at a lower weight, of course. Don't get discouraged if you can't do the same weights one of your classmates can do. They don't matter, all that matters is giving it your all. We clear?"

More nods, good. I think I got the point across.

"Right let's go over a few rules then we'll get your maxes down…"

I then explained the rules of the weight room to them, making sure they understood clearly not to get in the way of people, to always pay attention to their surroundings, tobe careful around weights and bars.

Then we went through their maxes so we could have something to work from… it was rather embarrassing to watch and I remembered how badly Kohta had done when he started. Glancing over to Kohta, I noticed with satisfaction that he was doing at least three times the weight of the next best in the entire group. He and the others noticed as well, and like I'd hoped it had a good effect on my first trainee. Thankfully, the others seemed to take heart from Kohta's effort instead of being discouraged. Good, if they saw Kohta as someone to match then they'd work all the harder.

About an hour later they'd gone through their one-repetition maxes and seemed to already be a bit fatigued. "Right, all written down, I'll be sure to get a chart and put everyone's maxes on there. Now, before you complain, that isn't to embarrass you guys, it's so you can look at your max and figure out the weights you'll need to do at a glance when we do the real thing."

"Now as trying to do an actual workout now would be counter-productive, we aren't pumping iron today. Follow me, we going to do some stairs." Oh those innocent faces, they have no idea what is about to happen to them.

"...and the entire staircase now smells of puke! It's unsanitary!" Two days later I was standing in the principal's office with one Kyoko Hayashi, a history teacher and the advisor for the Ping Pong club. The latter wasn't really pertinent to the situation, though.

What was, was her complaints about the consequences of that first day of stair runs, I'd been lucky with Kohta in that he seemed to have the same cast-iron stomach I had and wasn't inclined to puking from exertion, six of the new guys, on the other hand, most certainly were. When that had happened I'd called an end to the stair runs early and had the guys who were doing alright help me clean up the mess that had resulted.

Apparently we hadn't done a good enough job as I'd been hauled into the principal's office to get a tongue lashing from the resident disciplinarian. To be fair, she pulled off 'strict librarian' amazingly well. Long, auburn hair, the classic glasses and a full figure. Also only a few years older than me, how she wasn't already married I never understood though the vehemence with which she was going on about my 'illicit activities' where I'd been 'abusing' the students like a 'meat headed thug' was a bit on the harsh side.

Mister Yamada had waited until she was winding down before cutting in. "Miss Hayashi, Mister Brody here has already talked with me several times and I've already given my permission for him to work with anyone who wants to join his group. He already warned me that this might happen, though I doubt he expected half of them to do so all at the same time." That got a nervous chuckle out of me and a basilisk glare from the older woman. "I also told him that as long as no one got hurt I had no problem with what he did, and Brody-san already said that he'd helped the ones who didn't get ill clean everything up and he even warned the Janitor the next morning who said that the... splashed… area was as clean as feasible and the only thing else to do is wait for the smell to fade."

Miss Hayshi was stymied for a moment at how calm and accepting Yamada was at what she felt was justifiable outrage over obvious student abuse and clear misuse of a teacher's place of authority.

Seeing that she wasn't going to answer immediately Yamada continued; "Hayashi-san, do you know which students decided to join up with Brody-san's weight-training group?"

When she shook her head he continued. "I do and I also know that each and every one of them has had at least one unpleasant interaction with the Track and Field club. If this can help them at all then I'm certainly all for it."

Yamada didn't continue and to be honest, he didn't have to. Miss Hayashi understood immediately why these young men had returned even after puking their guts out. Shidou was the advisor to the track and field club - one of the worst in the Nagoya metropolitan area, I might add - and his club seemed to attract the more unpleasant members of the student body. Shidou's presence certainly didn't help either, if anything the man made things worse.

When Ms. Hayashi heard this her entire demeanor changed. She turned to me and said; "I see that I was misinformed about the nature of your group, Brody-san. My apologies." She then bowed to me, not a deep one but enough to show that she was honest in her apology.

"It's nothing, Hayashi-san. I understand completely that you saw, or rather smelled, something terrible happening to the students under your care and you moved to do something about it. It's really quite commendable, actually." I said, a bit embarrassed at the sudden turn around. Damn, Shidou really wasn't liked here was he?

"Thank you, Brody-san. I wish you and the students with you luck." She bowed to the both of us and turned to leave, but right before she left, she turned back, "Actually, let me make it up to you, Brody-san, some of us teachers go out once a month as a group. Usually to one of the local bars. I think you've been here long enough to be invited. We're planning our next get-together a week from now, if you're interested."

"Sounds like a great idea, would it be alright if I brought Shizuka-san with me?" I hadn't been sure what the two of us were going to do this coming weekend and this seemed like a perfect idea.

Something rippled over Hayashi's face for an instant but I wasn't able to translate it before she said that would be fine and closed the door. Huh, wonder what that was. Turning back to Yamada I said; "Well, she certainly changed her tune when she learned I was helping the victims of Shidou-san's goon squad. Remind me again what's the worst that could happen if we fired him?"

"Our jobs would most likely be called into question, Brody-san. And don't worry about Kyoko-san, she's a bit stern and serious about her work, but her heart's in the right place and she does care about the students here." Yamada said, that same serene grin he always kept on his face as strong as ever.

"Well, that's good to know, unless you have anything else I need to know I probably should get back to my class before Kurokawa-san's taken hostage by the students." I said.

Chuckling at my poor joke both of us said our good-byes and I left his office. The little secretary was glaring at me... again, but honestly I couldn't have cared less.

"Sensei, what kind of axe is that you practice with over at the Kendo dojo? I've never seen that style before"

The question came from from one of the lankier members of my trainees. A guy by the name of Hayato Shirakawa, he'd been one of the six to lose his lunch that first day but had worked harder than anyone as far I could tell and had been making amazing progress since he started a month ago. He was a member of the manga club and had aspirations of making a historical manga, though he still wasn't sure what the time period he wanted to use.

Considering the fact that we were already done for the day I decided to humor the kid. "Oh that? Well, it's called a Francisca Battle-axe, it's a type of weapon used by an old Germanic tribe called the Franks. It's actually a brilliant bit of design with that shape."

"Really? How's that?" One of the others who'd listened in said.

"Well, that's because there's a nasty little trick the Francisca does when you throw it. See how the Franks fought either against the Romans or other tribes, though when they were around that wasn't too much of a distinction... anyway. What they did was they usually carried several of those axes and when they got within range they'd all throw one of their axes. If they hit then they'd likely ruin anything they struck but if they hit the ground the shape of the ax and handle would actually make the thing bounce, and I mean bounce hard enough that it could go clean over a man's head or even hit people in the back. That'd ruin someone's day, that's for damn sure."

"It bounces? Yeah, right." Another student called out. "Prove it, Sensei."

"You know what? Alright, I'll show you how that thing can bounce. Anyone else want to watch?"

I got affirmatives from all thirteen of them.

"Right then, follow me."

We reached the dojo quickly enough. "Just wait outside here, guys and find me a clear spot will you?"

I quickly slid the door open and, finding my axe, I grabbed the thing and dashed back out with it.

"Alright guys, you find a spot?"

They had, it was in a corner of the track, empty at this time of day. It was an open space that had been too odd a shape or too small to be used for anything and so had been left alone. The tall stone wall that separated the school from the rest of the world stood more than high enough to act as a back wall.

"Right then... hmm... see those old chairs over there? Stack 'em up about man height then stand WAY clear and just watch."

Once that was done, I hefted the axe a few times and gave it a few twirls in my hand, it spun fast enough to actually humm for a moment, anime physics can be awesome sometimes…

It seemed to do the job of impressing all the young idiots with me. "Right then, here I go."

I reached back and hurled the thing, intentionally striking the ground in front of the stack of chairs. There was a sharp 'thunk' as the ax struck the ground and, true to itsword, it really did bounce and flew a good head's length over the chairs. It didn't stop there though, it actually hit the wall and bounced yet again, this time hitting the back of the top chair and making it fall off the stack with a crash.

There was silence for a moment then the entire group began cheering like I'd done some amazing feat.

"Do it again!" was the general response.

After stacking the chairs again I hurled the thing again, and again the thing bounced though this time it hit the middle chair, sending both it and the top chair flying backwards... damn, anime physics are fun.

"Alright, that's enough guys. I'd rather not have someone get hurt, okay?" Despite a few grumblings they acquiesced. Hayato then surprised me when he picked up the axeand examined it for a moment. "You know, Sensei, my family used to be blacksmiths and my grandpa still has the old family forge in his backyard and is pretty good at it. He could probably learn how to make these pretty quickly."

I was about to ask why he would want to do that when that same thought came to my mind... hmmm... we might be on to something here. "If you want to, Hayato, I could lend you the axe so you could should show it to your grandfather next chance you get. It'd be nice to have a blacksmith take a look at it and tell me what he thinks."

"Thanks, Sensei, my family lives half an hour from the school, actually, I could show it to him Sunday."

"Right... you know it might be better if I came with you, just in case something happens, rather not have you in trouble if you were walking around with it."

"Good point, I'll be sure to tell my folks you'll be coming."

As the rest of us started heading back a plan really did begin to form in my mind. Now, could I teach a bunch of physically rehabilitated nerds how to be a warband? Well, it wouldn't hurt to find out now would it? I also had all that pay I wasn't really using, no real point in saving for retirement when the undead are coming in less than a year, is there? Now how to get the iron blanks…


	10. Chapter 10

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"Damn, does this get repetitive," I muttered to myself.

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Two days after meeting Hayato Shirakawa's Grandfather, who was also named Hayato - the younger man was apparently named after him - I found myself sitting in my apartment with an electric screw driver, a few pliers, a wooden rod, a bolt cutter and a whole lot of non-galvanized 16 gauge tie wire. With them I was following several how-to's I'd found online on how to make riveted chainmail armor.

I'd been inspired to start working on this after my visit to the Shirakawa house that Sunday afternoon. Hayato senior was a man in his sixties, but was aging much more gracefully than some I've seen. While his face was wrinkled and his hair had gone steel gray, his hairline hadn't moved an inch. His frame was completely unbent and he had a bunch of wiry muscle to it. Like a compressed coil ready to spring at any moment.

He surprised me when, after I'd bowed in greeting, he had offered his right hand to shake in the Western style. He had a grip like a vice and I had to exert myself to match his strength. I must have passed muster, because he grunted in satisfaction before a smile spread across his face and he clapped me on the shoulder and asked me to sit on the porch and have a drink with him.

Surprised at his sudden welcoming demeanor, I followed the old man to the back of the house where he slid open a door, revealing a small but well kept yard with a large shed in the back, which I assumed was the family smithy. He asked me to sit down and told me to wait, then he headed back into the house for a moment. When he came back out he had a couple of shot-sized glasses and a bottle of sake in his hands. I'd never had sake and despite a couple of visits to a bar with Shizuka I wasn't one for drinking, but out of politeness I had accepted the offered glass and sipped it a couple of times before setting it aside.

Old man Hayato, for his part, had thrown the thing back with surprising speed before filling it up again. This time he nursed the thing as he looked to the back porch. "Brody-san, I'm not sure how to say this, but whatever you've been doing for my grandson, keep doing it. I've never seen him so full of life before. Normally whenever he was home, he'd just head up to his room and never leave. He had no interests, it seemed like, and no friends, he always had this beaten down look to him. Now when he's around, he's got a confidence about him that a real man should have and he's told us how he's been competing against the others in your group."

"Oh c'mon, Shirakawa-san, all I did is show him how to pump iron. He did the rest, the kid's got more to him than anyone really expected, he just needed the kick in the pants to get moving." I told him, not sure how to respond to the gratitude the old man was showing me.

"Well, whatever you did, thank you, my family owes you one and never let it be said a Shirakawa didn't repay his debts. If there's anything I can do for you, just name it." He said.

I was stunned for a moment, unsure of what to say to the man, when a thought came to me. "Actually, there is something you could do. Your grandson had invited me over because he wanted to show you the axe I have. I've got it here." Pulling out the backpack I'd carried the the battle axe in, I quickly pulled the thing out and handed it over to him handle first.

He took it from me and looked it over. "Interesting shape. Francisca-style axe, correct? Hmm... good curve to the head and handle, not many get that right." He then hefted the thing and hurled it towards a pile of wood next to the shed. The blade bit hard into the wood.

"Good balance. You take good care of it and whoever made it knew what he was doing. You want me to make another?"

I coughed for a moment then said: "You will? I mean would? Erm, I'm not sure what to say to that, wouldn't that be a bit expensive?"

He shrugged. "Old roommate of mine back in college is in the recycling service, he specializes in steel, he could get me enough quality metal to arm an entire army, no trouble. And if you're worried about my time, don't, it'd be a pleasure. I retired a few years ago and I've been all twitchy with nothing to do and I've been wanting a project."

"Well in that case I've been bouncing around an idea for the guys who've been in my unofficial club…"

Two days later found me making the links Shirakawa senior would be heating, and treating the rings I'd been making non-stop with the wire he'd given me along with some spare metalworking tools he had. Shirakawa himself was busy with the axes and spear-heads, and when I'd asked him about the shafts and handles, Shirakawa had laughed and said that he knew a few guys who were also retired and bored out of their minds.

Leaving it at that, I'd simply gotten on with the ring making.

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"GOD IS THIS MONOTONOUS!"

"What club did you want to help start up?"

"The Western Martial Reenactment Club." I replied.

"...Explain..." Yamada said after a moment.

"Well, the boys in my club know I practice with Western style weapons, and I've shown them how I use them occasionally. In a perfectly safe environment, of course." I then proceeded to explain how one of the young men in the club mentioned how his grandfather was a trained blacksmith and was willing to kit us out.

When I'd finished explaining that tidbit he continued to stare me directly in the eyes, saying nothing but obviously expecting something else from me.

Swallowing, I continued. "Mr. Yamada, I realize that this is unconventional in the extreme, but I've seen how these young men have gone from being walking punching bags with nothing to live for to actually having friends, confidence, their health if nothing else, and that was just with my impromptu weight lifting group. I feel that a club like this would give them a bond between each other and something they'd be able to remember and take strength from for the rest of their lives. Not to mention it'd allow them to stand out for any college application, if nothing else. That's my reasoning, take it as you will, sir."

Yamada was silent for a moment, then he smiled. "I've seen the excellent work you've done with these young men and frankly I'd like to see that continue. You have my official approval, and my personal blessing." He chuckled and continued; "I took two years of English Literature in college, one of the best tales I ever studied was Beowulf. I'd like to see what you can do with these boys, Mr. Brody."

I blinked in surprise and bowed again in thanks to Yamada before leaving. I had so much work to do to get these boys ready. Hey, more hands for clipping rings! WHOO HOO!

"Shields UP AND CLOSE! Keep them UP AND CLOSE! The damn thing's useless if you let it hang like a limp noodle. You've got muscles, USE THEM!" A month later and I was bellowing at the top of my lungs at the now twenty-five strong members of my little crew, or maybe not so little crew as the case may be.

As I sweated with the rest of them, I took note of how well they were taking to the basic drills I'd put together working with my axe and spear. It wasn't fancy and against a trained fighter it might not work all that well but against a horde of zeds or poorly armed and trained thugs? It'd be a killer. Excellent.

There was Kohta, hammering away at a wooden post I'd managed to scrounge up from a pile of scrap from a torn down building before the stuff was taken away, maybe he was just inclined to it but a good way to describe his build was if his chest and stomach had swapped places from when he'd started. I'd seen stumps that weren't that stout… anime physics, gotta love em' sometimes.

I then turned my focus to Hayato, the official president of the club, unofficially our band's Atheling. It turned out the kid had a knack for being a leader and could get the others to work harder than they would have otherwise. He also seemed to have taken to the armed fighting better than any of the others; often going toe to toe with me in our spars with shields and wooden axes and spears.

"Hey Sensei! How about you and Hayato have a spar now. We haven't had one for a couple of days now!" One of the others shouted.

The call was picked up by the others including Kohta. His confidence had gone through roof compared to what it had been before we had met. A grin spread to my face as I recalled a certain incident involving one of the members of the track and field club, a bigger guy whose event was the shot put.

The bastard had tried to start a mess with Kohta, who'd promptly told the taller guy to shove it. When the guy had grabbed him, Kohta had promptly gut-punched him hard enough to floor him with just that single blow. Unfortunately, some of Shot Put guy's buddies saw this and immediately jumped in to avenge their friend. At the same time,some of the muscle nerds happened to find Kohta trying to defend himself against three others and dove in to defend their friend.

The end result was four bruised but grinning Reenactment Club members standing victorious over an equal number of their former tormentors.

Inevitably, news of this spread through the school like wildfire and people realized once and for all what had happened to the school's resident otakus. Shido was, of course,OUTRAGED at what had happened to his students he was the advisor to. He'd immediately taken the mess to the principal, him haranguing Yamada to do something about this travesty, how I was turning the students into violent thugs. I promptly explained that Kohta had been accosted by the Track and Field member and had then been promptly been attacked by other members of the Track and Field club. It was then that several members of Reenactment Club had seen a fellow member and friend being attacked and outnumbered and had jumped in to help. What were they supposed to do? Just sit there and let it all happen?

I ended my argument with a comment on how the Track Club had a history of bullying the members of the Reenactment club before it had been founded. It might have been a good lesson that randomly harassing or outright attacking people wasn't conductive for their long-term health.

Shido did not take well to that final observation and it might have devolved into an actual fight right then and there. Sadly, THAT particular fight was delayed when Yamada brought in Sayako, of all people, as a witness to what had happened, she'd apparently seen the entire encounter and had sided with me and my boys' story completely.

Yamada had nodded and thanked her for her help before dismissing her. As she turned to go I could have sworn she'd purposefully caught my eye before leaving… nah...couldn't have been.

Shido and the Track and Field had been collectively reprimanded for their actions but Yamada had not gone further as he felt the Track and Field Members had been punished more than enough.

I was shaken from my reminiscing when Hayato crashed his axe into the front of his shield, painted with the Dai Gurren Brigade's mark on the face in bright red paint. I'd promptly returned the favor, mine having the Four Star Dragonball painted on mine. The guys really had gotten silly with the painting of the practice shields, and I still wondered at the wisdom of doing so, but in the end, did it really matter that much? Let them have their fun.

"Ready, Hayato?" I said, slight grin on my face.

"Been ready." He replied.

With that the two of us immediately went to the attack. Spears darted, shields clashed and axes hammered, bruises formed and teeth were nearly busted. Shizuka was somewhat in a tizzy over my battered face but I couldn't shake off the grin. Hayato was most certainly ready for what lay ahead.

Five months, five more months until the world as most knew it would end. After my adventures in armor making and putting together the core of an army… wow, never thought I'd say that, I'd been compiling something of a great shopping list of everything me and a surviving group could possibly use.

As I was comparing prices for a water filtration device, my cell-phone suddenly started ringing. Checking the screen, I grinned when I saw that it was Shizuka calling, probably had called in to check whether or not I was ready for our date that evening. Taking a hint from every relationship ever, I'd been ready to go for half an hour andwas just waiting for her. It was forty-five minutes until our rendezvous time before I headed over to her and Rika's place. Hitting the answer button I brought it to my ear and spoke. "Hello?"

"Tom! Hello! I was just calling to make sure you remembered when to come and pick me up."

"6:30, I remember, don't worry honey, I'll be there." Honey...that was a term of endearment I'd only recently been using for her and never at the school. It still felt funny to say it, but I was most certainly not complaining. The two of us had been dating for several months now. I'd never said a word about us being an item at the school, somewhat unsure what the rules about fraternizing with co-workers were, and neither had Shizuka, but either no one had noticed any small signs of us being a couple or they hadn't cared.

For the most part, the two of us had been pretty low-key, we'd each lunch together most days in her office, shooting the breeze at the same time. We'd communicate via text otherwise as we'd normally be pre-occupied with other things for the rest of the day. On the few occasions we had a shorter day at the school, the two of us would normally just laze about, either at my place or hers for a few hours. Boring as hell, I know, but honestly, neither of us were teenagers with hormones howling at us and to be frank, I rather liked it. It was soothing just having someone by your side. That she was a knockout that could put Ms. Monroe to shame certainly didn't hurt either.

To be honest, she was something like a calming element in my life. I was normally a pretty laid-back individual, but when I got agitated over something I could freak out with the best of them. Shizuka, if anything, was an even more relaxed person than me. She might have seemed a bit scatterbrained from time to time but her chipper attitude and the relaxed smile she always had was one of the few things that kept me from howling in terror at the threats coming down the pipe.

She was also one hell of a motivator to make DAMN sure that I got as ready as I could for whatever lay ahead.

A timer went off right then. "Oh, 45 minutes, better get going then." I quickly checked that I had my wallet, my keys and my cellphone, then I locked the door behind meand headed out to pick Shizuka up and head to downtown, Karaoke tonight, under my breath I half-sung, half muttered an old sea-shanty tune I was fond of. "Ten long years, I've courted Sally, Way Hey Bully in the Alley, but all she did was dilly and dally. Bully down in Shin bone al…"

"Well that was fun." I said as we left the Karaoke place. Shizuka had her arm around mine and giggled to herself.

"Yeah it was, why did you never tell me you could sing, Tom?" There was a slight pout on her face.

"Well I guess it never really came up." To be honest it hadn't, which was rather odd. One of the things I was more proud of than anything in my previous life was that I had a natural talent for singing. It was something I'd always had for as long a I could remember. I'd even been professionally taught for years. I'd never done it for money but I might have been able to do so. A combination of stage fright and general lack of confidence had always held me back from really pursuing it.

I'd also had the habit for years of singing when I was by myself, when I was driving in a car, taking a shower, hell, even mowing the lawn, it helped pass the time and when you're good it was a source of pride.

"Well, I'm going to have to bring some of my friends next time, they have to hear you. They'd never believe if I just told them."

That and possibly show me off, my mother used to do that as well. It'd be aggravating from time to time, but when I looked at the oddly conspiratorial look on Shizuka's face I found the idea rather fun. Besides, it'd been a while since I could simply sing my lungs out and I'd been missing that.

"Well, time for home then, unless you've something else in mind." I said with a grin.

To my surprise Shizuka paused for a moment, a blush on her face. "Actually, I do."

Before I could respond she reached up with her left hand and turned my head, then, to my slight surprise, she kissed me... hard. My brain promptly short-circuited and I didn't recognize where she was leading me until we'd already walked through a door of some building I didn't recognize in my dazed state.

It wasn't until I was sitting on a bed I didn't recognize that I realized where I was. "Erm...Shizuka….how did we get in a lov…" My brain short-circuited yet again from something else entirely.

"Just as a warning, I have no clue what to do here."

"That's alright, just let Shizuka-Sensei show you."

It took about three days before the people of my apartment to get sick of being serenaded by On the Street Where You Live over and over again every evening.


End file.
